1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a printing system and a printing method. More particularly, the present invention relates to a printing system and a printing method capable of preventing inconvenience to a user and preventing resources from being wasted as a result of re-printing.
2. Description of the Related Art
A printing system generally forms an image by injecting or fixing ink, toner and the like upon a recording medium such as a paper sheet based on printing data representing the image such as a photograph, a graphic, and a text among others. The printing system can be implemented by a digital publishing system. The digital publishing system provides a user with an editing means for editing an object to be printed such as a photograph, a graphic, a text with a type of digital data. The digital publishing system then prints the image edited by the user. A schematic structure of such a conventional printing system that is capable of being edited by the user is illustrated in FIG. 1.
The printing system 1 shown in FIG. 1 is equipped with a print analyzing apparatus 11 and a printer 12. The print analyzing apparatus 11 includes a storage unit 11a in which the printing data of an original image to be printed, such as a photograph, a graphic, and a text among others are stored in prescribed form. A print editing unit 11b facilitates the editing of the printing data by the user. The printing data selected by the user is transmitted from the print analyzing apparatus 11 to the printer 12 where image processing is carried out to perform the printing operation on the recording medium such as a paper sheet.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of an image printed by the printing system 1 in FIG. 1. The printing editing unit 11b of the printing system 1 causes a given display unit to display an image 13 corresponding to the printing data stored in the storage unit 11a. The image 13 includes a photograph 13a, a text 13b, and a picture or a graphic 13c. The printing editing unit 11b establishes a layout 14 based on the image 13 selectively edited by the user among the photograph 13a, the text 13b and the picture, or the graphic 13c. The printer 12 performs the printing operation based on the layout 14.
The conventional printing system 1 displays the layout 14 of the image edited by the user and cannot provide information which is capable of estimating the printing results. Once the user determines that the layout 14 is appropriate, the user gives instructions to print the image. The user may still have to correct the layout and perform printing operations again if an unexpected problem with the printing quality such as poor resolution occurs in the printing results. This results in a waste of ink, toner, and paper.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved system and method capable of preventing an inconvenience to a user and limiting the amount of resources wasted.